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Government Information Quarterly

Volume 14, Number 1, 1997

CONTENTS

Announcement

DISCUSSION FORUM
Shortcomings of the Proposed Electronic Freedom of Information
Improvement Act (S. 1090)
Robert Gellman ........................................................................................................... 1

ARTICLES

A Critique of Federal Telecommunications Policy Initiatives Relating to
Universal Service and Open Access to the National Information Infrastructure
John C. Beachboard, Charles R. McCLure, and John Carlo Bertot, ........................ 11

Freedom of Information and Open Government: The European Community/
Union Dimension
Patrick Birkinshaw.............................................................................................. 27

Public Access to Electronic Federal Depository Information in Regional
Depository Libraries
Stephanie Ford ............................................................................................................ 51

The Depository Library Scheme in New Zealand: The Present and Building
Toward the Future
Peter Hernon and Anna Chalmers ............................................................................. 65

The U.S. Census Bureau's Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS)
J. Timothy Sprehe ................................................................................................ 91

Contributors ......................................................................................................... 101

REVIEWS
Edited by John Shuler

Dubester's U.S. Census Bibliography with SuDocs Class Numbers and Indexes
Reviewed by Daniel C. Barkley ......................................................................... 103

The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age
Reviewed by Robert Gellman ................................................................................ 104

The New Information Infrastructure: Strategies for U.S. Policies
Reviewed by Robert Gellman ................................................................... 104

The Hill on the Net: Congress Enters the Information Age
Reviewed by John A. Shuler ........................................................................ 106

Introduction to United States Government Information Sources
Reviewed by Peter Hernon ........................................................................... 107

Planning Global Information Infrastructure
Reviewed by Bert Chapman ......................................................................... 108

Study to Identify Measures Necessary for a Successful Transition to a More
Electronic Federal Depository Library Program: As Required by Legislative
Appropriations Act 1996, Public Law 104-53: Report to Congress
Reviewed by Rhonda J. Marker ................................................................. 108

John C. Beachboard
Charles R. McClure
John Carlo Bertot

While accepting the importance of expanding the definition of universal service in the information age, this article forwards the argument that regulatory and rhetorical emphasis on telecommunications is skewing the policy debate and undermining the policy goals identified by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (P.L. 104- 104). The universal service provisions of the Act are critiqued in terms of their economic and social implications. The social objectives of expanding the definition of universal service are restated, and recommendations regarding their pursuit are offered.

Freedom of Information and Open Government:
The European Community/Union Dimension

Patrick Birkinshaw

While the UK government has faced increasing pressure to introduce freedom of information legislation, freedom of information and open government are becoming crucial questions in relation to the operation of the European Community and European Union. The European Community and Union are under growing pressure to make themselves more open and "transparent" in their operations, and recent reforms have allowed greater access to Community documents by individuals. However, these reforms have left many questions unanswered, or even unaddressed, and the whole subject of national parliaments and their right to Community and Union documents is unresolved. What is emerging is a very difficult and complex set of relationships which must be addressed if the European Community and Union are to maintain credibility as democratic institutions among member states and their citizens. The author believes that achieving greater openness at the European level is vital if the Community and Union are to succeed.

Public Access to Electronic Federal Depository
Information in Regional Depository Libraries

Stephanie Ford

This article reports on a study of regional depository libraries for a descriptive analysis of regional depository library capabilities and practice in providing public access to electronic federal government information. The study indicates that regional depository libraries are progressing in the creation of an environment that supports public access to this information. The responding regionals are equipped with public access microcom- puter workstations and a majority provide access to CD-ROM's, the Internet and GPO Access. Adequate staffing and resources, however, remain a problem for some.

The Depository Library Scheme in New Zealand:
The Present and Building Toward the Future

Peter Hernon
Anna Chalmers

This article, which reports the results of a recent survey, assesses the Scheme's role, value, strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities at a time when the New Zealand government is embracing the electronic provision of government information, and many departments do not provide their publications to the 21 public libraries par- ticipating in the Scheme.

The U.S. Census Bureau's Data Access and
Dissemination System (DADS)

J. Timothy Sprehe

The U.S. Bureau of the Census has announced its intention of making the Internet and other electronic systems the primary sources for gaining access to its statistics. The Bureau has begun to design the Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS) as the delivery system for the 2000 Decennial Census and ultimately as the single information system for access to all Census statistics. On the basis of consultations with users, the Bureau adopted a set of design principles for DADS. Most custom products available over DADS will be fee-based. Census is also considering the use of partnerships with private sector parties. The Bureau is also developing a metadata system for use in ac- cessing all agency data. Data users have the opportunity to voice their views about the design of DADS.

CONTRIBUTORS

John C. Beachboard is a doctoral student and research associate at the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244. In collaboration with Charles R. McClure and John Carlo Bertot, he has recently completed research on a National Science Foundation grant that resulted in the report "Internet Costs and Cost Models for Public Libraries." He has also written articles and conference papers regarding federal information technology management. Prior to beginning his graduate work in information management, Beachboard had 15 years' experience in government and industry designing and implementing large-scale telecommunications and information systems. He received an MS from Boston University in Business Administration and an MS in Information Resources Management at Syracuse University.

John Carlo Bertot is Assistant Professor at the Department of Information Systems, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, Maryland 21250 , where he teaches courses in federal and state government information management and policies, and the management of information systems. He has published articles and written reports on federal, state, and county government infor mation policy, and the use of information technology to deliver government information and services. Most recently, he was co-author, with Charles R. McClure, of The 1996 Survey of Public Libraries and the Internet: Progress and Issues (Washington, D.C.: National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, 1996) and "Federal Information Resources Management: Integrating Information Management and Technology" (in Federal Information Policies in the 1990s, edited by Peter Hernon, Charles R. McClure, Harold C. Relyea (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1996)).

Patrick Birkinshaw is Professor of Public Law at the Law School, and Director of the Institute of European Public Law, at the University of Hull . His interests include public law, European public law, government, law and economic regulation, and legal theory. He has represented the United Kingdom on two occasions at the Congress of the International Federation for European Law. He has written many articles and books, including Freedom of Information: The Law, the Practice and the Ideal (2nd ed., 1996) and Grievances, Remedies and the State (2nd ed., 1995). Since 1995, he has edited European Public Law for Kluwer International.

Anna Chalmers is the Research Manager at the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, where social science research is undertaken to form the Library's information policy work. She has published a number of research studies, is currently completing a study of strategic management in 11 National Libraries, and is undertaking further work concerning public access to and use of New Zealand government information. She began her library career as a reference librarian at the Parliamentary Library, Wellington, and has taught, on secondment, at the Department of Library and Information Studies, Victoria University, Wellington. She holds a BA (English) and an MA (Social Science Research), in addition to her Library School Diploma. Her address is: National Library of New Zealand, P.O. Box 1467, Wellington, New Zealand .

Stephanie Ford is a recent graduate of the master's program, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The article reported in this issue is based on the paper she wrote for that program.

Robert Gellman served as counsel to the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Information, Justice, Transportation and Agriculture from 1977 to 1994. He is now a Privacy and Information Policy Consultant.

Charles R. McClure is Distinguished Professor of Information Studies at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244 . He earned his Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from Rutgers University in 1977. He teaches in the areas of federal information policies, management of information technology, and assessing electronic information services. He is co-author of Federal Information Policies in the 1990s (Ablex, 1996), Assessing the Academic Networked Environment (CNI, 1996), and Govemment Information Locator Service (GILS) Expanding Research and Development (NISO, 1994). He has conducted a number of studies for federal agencies related to managing information service and has testified before Congress on federal information policy topics. McClure was named Distinguished Researcher at the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science in 1993, Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Oklahoma in 1994, and Distinguished Alumnus of Rutgers University in 1996.

J. Timothy Sprehe is president of Sprehe Information Management Associates, Inc. His firm offers consulting in the federal marketplace on information issues. Now retired from the Office of Management and Budget, he was the principal author of the 1985 government-wide information policy directive, OMB Circular No. A-130, "Management of Federal Information Resources." He writes frequently in the field of federal information policy, including a regular column for Federal Computer Week. He holds a doctorate in sociology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

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